S 9000

[djgiron]

You have to put any comments on dpreview in perspective though, most of those posters are serious dSLR photographers and alot of the dislike for the s9000 is just because it is not a dSLR.

[SteveDak]

I've picked that up and some are certainly very critical, but these are guys who have actually bought the camera.

[Clyde Atkinson]

Monza76 wrote:

SteveDak,

jphess pretty much covered it, CF cards are much cheaper than xD, that and the fact that only Fuji and Olympus use xD so it does not have applications beyond these cameras. If you already have an investment in xD cards they will work fine in the S9X00, but fast CF cards are available in bigger sizes for a lower price. My 16X (not real fast) 512Mb CF card cost about the same as a 256Mb xD.

The issue is that Fuji chose to introduce a new memory card while others went with CF or, more commonly now-a-days the SD. I don't think there is any real reason for the xD card (or, dare I say it, the Sony Memory Stick) to exist, except to get more sales for your format before the third party manufacturers get started. The CF compatibility was a big point in my decision to buy the S7000, I already had three cameras which used CF and AA batteries. My 16Mb xD card sits in its slot for that one day when I have filled the CF card and just need one or two more shots (jpeg of course, only 1 raw will fit). Notice that Fuji, Olympus and Sony all offer CF slots in their high end cameras, say it all.

Basically I see proprietary batteries and proprietary memory cards as a marketing ploy (in many cases they actually offer less performance).

Ira

Hi Ira,

Kodak is now using xD cards on a couple of their new cams (as well as selling xD cards under the Kodak name). I would agree that at one time xD was way more expensive than CF, but prices have been dropping fast and they are getting closer. Even Hitachi microdrives have been dropping in price (naturally after I bought one!) with the new competition from Seagate and Western Digital with their new 1" drives. I certainly agree with your comments on proprietary accessories, been there, done that, and don't want to have to go through it again in any product line, digicams, music synthesizers, or anything.

Clyde

[Monza76]

Clyde

Thanks for that info.

Ira